Two.42.solutions Powers Ahead with Next-Generation of Media Monitoring and Analytics

The name has people scratching their heads, but Two.42.solutions is fast-becoming a leader in media monitoring, with a little bit of help from DataSift.

Let’s deal with that company name first. Mohammad Hamid, chief technology officer of two.42.solutions, explains its origins. “When we formed the company we performed a number of experiments to identify the appropriate monitoring methodology. Some 67% of the experiments had outliers—and the value of those outliers 67% of the time was 242. That 242 was also part of the phone number of another partner in the company—along with other similar coincidences to the number. The name seemed appropriate.”

It was a smart move. With deep roots in public opinion and large-scale data processing, Two.42.solutions has emerged as a leader in media monitoring, predictive analytics, and influencer identification to notable public figures, political candidates and Fortune 500 corporations.

Hamid refers to the Michigan-based firm as ‘conversation specialists’: monitoring and measuring conversations across online, broadcast and print media sources—all from a proprietary platform, dYverr. “We’re tapping into the richness of big data and human intelligence to give clients the most complete understanding of what people are reading, hearing, seeing and saying about the topics and issues they care most about,” says Hamid.

The problem was that clients were calling for more flexibility in the implementation of social and digital listening: either to get data more often—or faster. But Two.42.solutions didn’t want to be constrained by the general tools available in the marketplace. The company more control over monitoring, as well as the ability to perform sentiment analysis and close other analytics gaps.

Hamid and his team began looking at the options, examining standard social media monitoring tools with APIs but they are all insufficient or ineffective. “We chose DataSift for three reasons,” he says. “First, flexibility in the type of data and metadata data that could be exported and accessed. Second, the inclusion of multiple sources, such as print media. And third, lower cost involved in drawing together different sources and sentiment enhancements.”

Two.42.solutions has partnered with DataSift to build its own media monitoring platform, as well as building custom platforms for clients. One of the most valuable features of DataSift is the ability to include print media through LexisNexis as well as the additional features leveraging Lexalytics.

Besides LexisNexis, Two.42.solutions can monitor an ever-growing number of data sources. Right now, the company is monitoring Twitter, Facebook pages, WordPress, LexisNexis, with others being added as client needs adapt. Enrichments in use include topic analysis, sentiment, and entity extraction—with more again being added as client demands change.

Hamid concludes, “Uniquely, DataSift gives Two.42.solutions the ability to extract data with less latency than other providers, as well as the ability to add our own analytics features.”